Crystal Clear Alternative
by Katterina
Summary: Elaina was just living her life. Then she discovered the crystals, and everything changed. Now she has to deal with Autobots watching over her, and Decepticons after her. That's all before the crystals do their magic. Human Tranformers. OP/OC pairing.
1. Chapter 1: The Discoveries

Disclaimer: I do not own The Transformers

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Transformers. They are owned by Hasbro, a much richer bunch of people than my poor self. I do own Elaina and Arrowhead! So if you like them please ask if you can use them!**

**Chapter One**

The harsh, Eastern Oregon, desert sun baked everything as the crew tried desperately to stay cool. Quick-Shade pavilions covered some of the site where the ground was even. An occasional breeze would drop the 100+ degree temperature a little, but not enough to make a difference. More than often it just blew more sand where it wasn't wanted.

Scattered across an area of no more than ¼ acre were a dozen men and women kneeling in the dirt and rock. About half of the group was centered around a large plaster encased ribcage, digging under it with small picks.

Elaina stepped out of the tent that was off to the side, among the rocks. She looked over the site with a grin. It was rare for her to be in charge of so many people around her own age. She wasn't used to it. Of course that's what happens when you graduate with a Masters at such a young age. Currently she was continuing on for her PhD in Paleontology, and helping teach at the same time, as well as working for two local museums. She was only 25, but felt like she was much older sometimes.

The wind picked up, blowing the dirt around in swirls. She was suddenly glad that her hair was long enough to pull back. She didn't exactly want a red wavy mass blocking her face. She grabbed her sunglasses from her vest pocket and placed them over her emerald eyes. "Damn it's bright out here today," she muttered under her breath.

"Professor Johnson, there's something strange here…" One of the young men called to Elaina from the rib cage.

She sighed and walked over. She wasn't a Professor yet, but she couldn't seem to get them to stop calling her that.

"What is it?" Elaina asked as she stood over his shoulder trying to see what he was pointing at in the hole he had made under the sauropod ribcage. In the light she caught a strange glint coming from the general area.

"Don't know…" He whispered as he moved out of the way for her to see. The glittering light was coming from a large formation of crystals that appeared to be growing where the dinosaur's stomach would have been in life.

She reached down and touched them cautiously. They were warm to the touch, not cold like most crystals. Reaching around she grabbed for the small pick that was lying on the ground and clipped a piece off. She held it up to the light and was amazed at the beauty of colors that swirled inside of it.

"Get the rest of that out of there and bring it to my tent. I'll take it to town to analyze it later today," she requested to anyone that was listening. The young man that had discovered it nodded and moved to start working on it.

A few weeks later she was in the news. Not the big national news that makes top headlines, but the news that was important to those of her profession. She had discovered a new type of crystal. That was a big thing for geologists and paleontologists alike.

Her new type of crystal was being featured in the upcoming rock exhibit at OMSI with a big picture of its newly famous discoverer. Elaina was thoroughly embarrassed. She worked part-time at OMSI in the paleontology lab, as well as at the new dinosaur museum in Eastern Oregon. She was busy, but was free to take time off whenever she needed. She wasn't working for the money.

There was no need of more money in her life. Elaina had inherited a small fortune from her parents when they were killed in a car crash a couple years ago. The pain of it still gripped her heart from time to time, but they had made sure that she would never want for anything when they passed on. So now she owned a nice amount of property in the mountains over looking Portland, Oregon. That's where she was currently hiding out, until the rock exhibit next week.

She had just bought a nice Pace Arrow RV. She had seen it sitting on the lot that she passed to get home from the store, every day for a week now. Finally she broke down and bought it. It was about time that she got out of the tents when she was at dig sites.

It was a nice sunny day so she was out with the RV making sure that it was stocked with all her stuff she needed for digs, and the occasional camping trip. It was a 1980's model, with green and brown on the outside and khaki on the inside. She loved the way it looked and didn't plan on changing anything color wise on it. She was pleased to find that it had a lot of different storage compartments. She had already stocked most of it with various camping necessities.

With her long red hair pulled back, and an old baby doll green tee-shirt on, she looked a bit like a poor college student. Her jeans were faded and had holes in the knees. She was covered in dirt and dust from cleaning the inside completely. Now it was time to wash the outside.

She hauled over the hose, a bucket, and the soap she used to wash her cars with. "Time to get you cleaned up…" she whispered to the RV as she turned on the hose and filled up the bucket with soapy water.

After filling the bucket she turned the hose to the RV and started spaying it thoroughly. She lost her focus when she thought she heard a noise. To her it sounded as if someone had said "_That's cold_." She looked around but didn't see anyone except for her wolf-husky mix, Diablo.

She eyed the dog suspiciously. "Was that you?" She asked jokingly as she let him lick the water from the hose. He just snorted the extra water from his nose in response.

With a shrug she turned the hose back to the RV. She walked around to the front and started getting the windshield soaked. Once again she stopped because she heard a voice say, "_Seriously, that's really cold_!"

She dropped the hose for a moment and walked around the RV, looking for the source of the voice. "Hello… Is someone out there?" She called out to the surrounding forest.

She looked at Diablo, who was lying on the cement driveway next to her old Landrover. She knew if someone was lurking around he would be up and growling, to defend his territory. With an exasperated sigh she returned to the hose and the RV.

She aimed the hose high, trying to hit the roof without having to climb the ladder around on the back. "_Okay, that's enough! At least warm the water up first_!" The voice exclaimed.

Elaina dropped the hose in shock as her RV started shaking the water off. Then it did something that she could never really describe. It moved, but not like a vehicle. It transformed, reforming itself into a rather tall robot with a vaguely human-like appearance in structure.

In fear Elaina backed away from the robot, stepping into the bucket of soapy water and falling soundly on her ass. She sat there in stunned silence, covered in soapy water, as she looked up at her RV-turned-robot.

With a definite grin the robot looked down on her and said, "I'm Arrowhead. I'm your guardian."

Like the rest of America, Elaina had watched the news from Mission City a few months ago with the giant robots that had torn up the city. The government was calling it an experiment of new defense technology, but she didn't believe a word of that nonsense. She had seen the footage and believed that the robots were intelligent, possibly alien by their design. She hadn't counted on purchasing one of them from a used RV lot.

Arrowhead had explained to her about the Autobots, and their existence on earth as well as their war torn past. She had listened half in shock, and half enthralled.

The whole thing was more intense that she could have ever imagined. He had also explained why he was her guardian. It all had to do with the crystals that she had found.

Apparently they gave off a power signature that was detectable by the Autobots. He explained that if they could detect it, then their enemies, the Decepticons, probably could as well. So he was sent to her as a guardian.

"Wait… If you were sent to be my guardian, why did _I_ pick _you_ out at the RV lot? What would you have done if I had chosen another RV?" She asked him, feeling clever as the thought came to her.

Arrowhead grinned at her question. "I didn't copy that RV until I was sure it was the one you were going to pick. I was hiding in the trees next to the lot as you haggled with the dealer. The original RV is now in that grove of trees." He said with a proud tone to his voice.

"That's going to be interesting when someone discovers it…." Elaina muttered as she thought it over.

Arrowhead smiled warmly at her comment before explain that his leader, Optimus Prime, and the other Autobots were probably going to keep an eye on everything as well. This was to make sure that the Decepticons didn't get their hands on the crystals.

"We don't know what the crystals will do if one of us gets a hold of them. It can't be good if the Decepticons get a hold of them, considering the level of power that can be detected from them so far away…." Arrowhead mused as he looked towards her two-story fake log cabin.

Elaina had a very nice, lodge style, fake log cabin that had been built for her a year ago. She could have afforded real logs, but didn't want to deal with the upkeep on something like that here in the Oregon wilderness. It rained way too often for her to want to have real wood siding in her house. She did have a real wood deck on the second story. From there she could look over the entire Portland area at night.

In the basement of the house she had an office where she kept most of her rocks, and a few fossils that she worked on. There was a large safe in there. A section of the crystal formation was secured in there for the time being.

"You mean that you could sense the crystals that are here, at my house, from Mission City?" She asked in sudden intrigue. She had studied the crystals for hours and hadn't found any trace of an energy signature on her equipment. Yet these robots could sense them from thousands of miles away.

Arrowhead noticed her fascination and sighed. "Actually, we could sense them from Tranquility CA, which is where our base is, and even further away. I was in orbit when I sensed them and contacted Optimus about it." His concern was in his voice when he added, "If I could sense it from space, then it's safe to assume that the Decepticons could easily do the same thing."

At the confused look on her pretty human face he smiled. "Yes, I was in outer space… Waiting till Optimus needed me."

"Tell me more about these Decepticons and this Optimus Prime you keep talking about," Elaina said as she settled onto her park bench that she kept in her yard. She was still damp, but the sun was making fast work of drying her out. The Autobot was sitting awkwardly next to the bench.

"I don't know how much more I can tell you, other than Megatron is their leader. He's pretty much the ultimate personification of evil. He makes your Lex Luthor look like a person who raised puppies at the end of a sugar covered rainbow." Arrowhead explained with a nervous chuckle. It was apparent to Elaina that he was genuinely afraid of this Megatron.

Elaina looked up at him with compassion. There were things in this world that she feared a lot. She did the same thing of covering it up with a bit of humor. "So how do you know who Lex Luthor is? That's a human thing…" she asked.

"The same way I know how to speak your language. The world wide web is a great tool," Arrowhead answered with a completely blank face. He was surprised that this human hadn't figured that out already. She seemed very intelligent to him.

Elaina shook her damp hair out for a moment as she tried to wrap her head around everything that he had told her so far.

"Okay, let me see if I have this all right so far… My crystals send off an energy signature that you could sense from orbit. These Decepticons have the same kind of sensors that you do, so you are assuming that they have sensed the crystals as well. The leader of the Decepticons is the ultimate evil bad guy, and he will want to get his hands on the crystals for whatever reason… You were sent to guard me in case these bad guys try to get to the crystals. There are others like you that know what's going on and are waiting with this leader of yours, Optimus Prime, to what…."

She paused dramatically, letting her point come to conclusion. "See if you can defend me and my discovery by yourself against an evil so bad it makes comic book villains seem like model citizens? That doesn't make much sense!" She ended her rant with an exasperated raise of her hands in the air.

Arrowhead laughed a little at her rundown of the whole thing. "Not exactly," he said with a chuckle and a shake of his own head. He thought it was cute that she believed that he was sent to guard her from all the Decepticons. He was a warrior, but not that good of a warrior.

"Optimus sent me to watch over you for now. He is trying to keep an eye out for any movement on the part of the Decepticons. So far they have been in hiding since the incident in Mission City. Most of the Decepticons that were on earth were destroyed in that battle anyways." He told her with confidence. "The humans dumped the body of Megatron into the deepest part of the oceans. I don't believe that he survived that, or the Allspark being shoved into his spark."

Elaina nodded her head to indicate that she understood. He had explained about the Allspark earlier and a little about the battle at Mission City. She was still amazed about the whole thing. It was like living in a science fiction movie.

She looked up at him and realized that this was the longest conversation she had been in for a couple of years now. She really kept to herself, and her work. She felt almost like she was starting to become friends with her RV. A really amusing thought when she let it cross her mind. She couldn't stop the light laughter that followed that thought.

Arrowhead looked at her in confusion. He couldn't see that anything he had just explained would be cause for laughter. "What's so funny?" He asked her with in indignant tone.

Elaine stopped her giggle by swallowing hard. She shook her head and answered, "It's nothing that you said. I was just thinking that it was funny that I was having this conversation with my RV, that's all." She didn't tell him the rest of her thoughts, because they were very personal. "So tell me about Optimus Prime. You really seem to have a lot of respect for him. It's in your voice when you mention his name." She said to change the subject quickly as he looked at her with curiosity.

Arrowhead straightened up as he started to talk. "Optimus is our leader. He's the supreme commander of the Autobots. He's intelligent and a very capable warrior in battle. The best of us all, really…" His voice held the awe of hero worship. "Yet at the same time he is a very honest and kind being. He's very compassionate as well."

Elaina listened with interest. She wanted to meet this Optimus Prime. If he was really as great as Arrowhead described, he would be a nice robot to know. She wondered if anyone could really be that great in reality though. She stood up and stretched as she realized that the sun was starting to set. She had been outside most of the day, and had spent about half of that with wet clothing and hair.

"I'm going inside to shower and eat. Do you eat?" She asked Arrowhead with concern. She didn't really know what to cook for a robot.

Arrowhead laughed heartily before answering. "I don't eat in the way you think. We consume energy sources." He said wistfully thinking of energon, which he hadn't had in a while now. "Your human food always smells good though. I wish I could eat that."

Elaina stopped before the side door to the house as he spoke. She hadn't realized that robots could smell things and she said so to him.

"We have sensors that work in the same way that your biological senses act." He explained quickly pointed to his face. "I can smell things, hear things and see things in a similar way to you."

She understood what he was saying. "You just can't taste things like a biological creature, right?" She asked as she thought about it. His nod of confirmation made her sad. She couldn't imagine not being able to taste things. Of course she was a food fanatic. She watched Food network all the time. Which was why she could cook as well as she did.

"What can I do to help?" She asked. She didn't want to make him hungry by cooking, knowing that he couldn't eat like she did. "Do you want me to plug you into the house for a while? You can get some energy that way. Just don't take so much that you blow the breaker." She added the last, realizing that she didn't know how much energy he would need to keep going.

"I'm fine for the time being. I don't need energy. It just takes the edge off the hunger that I sometimes feel when I can smell human food." Arrowhead sighed.

Elaina shrugged and pointed to the outlet on the side of the house. "If you feel the need, the outlet is right there." She smiled at him and then went inside the wash up.


	2. Chapter 2: Camping and Decepticons

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Transformers. They are owned by Hasbro. Elaina and Arrowhead are mine though.**

**Chapter Two**

During the next week Elaina spent most of her time with Arrowhead. She had taken to calling him _Pace_, much to his dismay. The first time she had called him that he was confused.

"You know that's not my name. So why did you call me that?" He had asked with a quizzical look.

"Because you are a Pace Arrow RV." She had answered pointedly. He had protested a little more after that, but finally gave in. An exaggerated roll of the eyes became his only form of retort.

Sunday was going to be the official opening of the rock exhibit. It was late Friday morning when Elaina got off of the latest call from OMSI. She was very sick of them calling everyday to make sure that she was going to be able to be there early Sunday morning.

"If I have to talk to those overbearing control freaks one more time I'm going to scream and throw the phone into the woods!" She had exclaimed as she walked outside on the deck. Arrowhead was kneeling down, playing gently with Diablo, when she came out to vent.

"OMSI again?" He asked with a sly grin. He found her anger quite cute sometimes, when it wasn't directed at him. He stood up, slumping a little, so that he was eye level with her. A broad smile took over his face, in an attempt to make Elaina laugh. She seemed to find the facial expressions of a robot amusing.

"Stop that!" She whined playfully. She knew he was trying to cheer her up, and she did appreciate the gesture. She couldn't help but laugh a little as he lifted a very large finger up to her chin and made her look at him. "I was planning to go camping today when I originally bought you. I guess that idea is out now." Her tone was a bit wistful.

"What's stopping you?" Arrowhead gestured at himself, "I'm still a RV." He shifted to RV form and back just to make his point clear.

"Funny, very funny!" Elaina grumbled. Then she took a moment to think about it. She wouldn't be able to sleep inside Pace comfortably, knowing he could watch her, but she had a tent. She could still go camping with him, just not _in_ him. "OK. Let's do it. We'll go camping!"

Arrowhead nodded his excited agreement. "We just can't leave the property!" He added in, as if it was an afterthought. He knew he still had to protect the crystals from any possible Decepticon threat.

"What? Why?" Elaina protested. She had really been looking forward to heading out to one of the many state parks that was close by. She didn't really want to camp here, at home; it seemed to defeat the purpose.

Arrowhead sat down, letting the dog sit on his lap. "I have to make sure that the crystals are safe. That is one part of my mission, as you know." He sighed deeply. He had also been excited of the prospect of getting to explore more of this human world. He had to keep reminding himself of the importance of the mission.

Elaina looked down at him in compassion. She was out here, hiding from the world by choice. He was stuck here until something happened, one way or the other. For his sake she hoped that news would come from Optimus soon.

"It's ok. We can camp over there," she pointed to the little fire pit and picnic table area she had created over by the tree line. "It'll be fun!" She noticed he perked up with that idea.

During the next few hours Elaina went hunting for her tent and some other camping gear that she had not placed in the many thoroughly hidden compartments on Pace. She had thought about asking where all her stuff went when he was transformed, but she had decided that she really didn't want to know.

Finally everything was all together. When Elaina started trying to haul all the camping gear over the expansive yard, to the camping area, Arrowhead stopped her.

"Let me handle this," he stated with feigned importance. With one hand he carried the bundled tent, the cooler, and the camp chair, leaving Elaina with only a few bags of odds and ends in her hands.

Arrowhead promptly strolled over to a spot he liked near the fire pit and set everything down for Elaina. It took her a little longer to walk the distance from the front porch to the camping area. "Showoff," she mumbled lightly as she walked over and started setting up camp.

About an hour later they were enjoying a nice fire. The tent was set up a few feet away and foil packets of food were in the coals, cooking slowly. Arrowhead and Elaina had been talking about all the things that they did to relax.

Elaina was surprised at how human the Autobots could be. It was really interesting to her to find so much in common with a robot. She fished out a packet of the food and carefully opened the hot foil. A strong aroma of beef, onions and seasoning perfumed the air.

"Wow! That smells really good," Arrowhead commented with a sigh. He knew that humans needed to eat a few times a day to keep their energy up, but he wished he didn't have to smell it when he couldn't eat it.

Elaina felt a blush creep over her face as she realized that Arrowhead was practically drooling over the food in her hand. She did feel bad for the robot. Her love of food was very evident in her cooking and she couldn't imagine not being able to eat. To save his dignity she ate as fast as she possibly could. She tossed the other packet to Diablo who was more than happy to eat the warm food.

Arrowhead sat relaxing with Elaina next to him. He stared up at the stars thinking about Cybertron. "Look!" He exclaimed to Elaina, pointed up to the sky. "Shooting stars!"

Elaina looked up to see the sky littered with shooting stars. "Must be the meteor shower." Around this time every year there was a great meteor shower. She used to love watching it with her family when she was a child. She hadn't watched it for a few years now, not since her parents were killed.

Arrowhead watched the shower with interest. It was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. Then a strange clump of meteors caught his attention. They were bigger than the rest. He watched as they descended into the hills on the other side of the vast Portland area. "Excuse me… I have to make a call," Arrowhead said as he walked off into the woods.

"Alright…." Elaina said with more than just a hint of curiosity in her voice. She wondered about how he was going to call anyone, but didn't get the chance to ask before he disappeared into the dark.

Once Arrowhead was sure that he was out of hearing range of Elaina he pressed his communications button to contact Optimus Prime. "Optimus, come in Optimus," he called into his mic.

A quick blast of static came before the response. "Optimus Prime here. What is it Arrowhead?" The distinctive voice responded through the internal speakers.

Arrowhead smiled at hearing Primes voice. "It's good to hear your voice sir. I was just wondering if you had called for backup to come this way?"

"No? I was holding Prowl, Wheeljack and Cliffjumper in reserve until the Decepticons showed up. Why do you ask?" Optimus answered quickly.

Arrowhead sighed heavily at the answer. That really wasn't what he wanted to hear. "We may need them if I'm right about what I think I just saw." He paused for a moment before continuing.

"I saw a meteor shower with Elaina tonight. In the shower a cluster of three meteors was closer to earth than the rest. They crashed on the other side of the valley below here. If it wasn't us, then….." Arrowhead explained trailing off at the end, not really wanting to continue.

"Decepticons," Optimus said what Arrowhead didn't want to. "We can be there in a day if you need us."

Arrowhead shook his head, forgetting that Optimus couldn't see him. "No, wait a few days. I'll call you again if I need you to come sooner."

"Be careful my friend. Optimus Prime out." Optimus stated then the comlink shut down.

"Always…" Arrowhead muttered sarcastically to himself before heading back to the campsite. When he got back Elaina was getting into the tent. He sat down near the dying fire. Diablo poked his head out from the tent and barked a greeting at Arrowhead.

"Have a nice conversation? Who did you call?" Elaina asked as she adjusted the sleeping bag she had just rolled out.

Arrowhead laughed nervously. "Yeah… good conversation," he mumbled absentmindedly. "I had to contact Optimus Prime."

Elaina didn't know what to say to her obviously distracted friend. She wanted to ask more. She just wasn't sure that he would fully answer her. She figured on asking simple questions and could deduce the rest later.

"What did you need to talk to him about?" She tried asking first.

Arrowhead turned to look at her fully. He snapped out of his internal focus enough to think clearly before answering her. "I think that the Decepticons might be coming soon for the crystals. I wanted to warn Optimus Prime that we might need his help."

Elaina didn't like to think about the Decepticons being here, but she was glad that Arrowhead had called in Optimus. She knew that she would feel better with more guards. She just hoped that she wouldn't have to have all the Autobots living on her property. Maybe the rest could watch from a distance or something like that.

She was still a little uneasy about being face to face with an entire race of living robots from outer space. Arrowhead was becoming an exception, because he was something of a kindred spirit.

Elaina nodded her approval at Arrowhead. "You did a good thing calling Optimus. If the Decepticons really are coming then you will probably need his help. Not that I don't think you can't handle a few Decepticons on your own!" She added the last part after she realized that she had made her friend sound weak.

Arrowhead appreciated her encouragement. He was even a little surprised to hear her say that she thought that he could take a few Decepticons on his own. He knew that he could fight, with his friends at his side. In truth he liked being a scout more than a warrior. Diablo chose that moment to leap out of the tent to come lay down by Arrowhead

"So why are you sleeping in the tent? I am an RV after all." He asked her in a playful tone while trying to change the subject.

Elaina blushed deep crimson. "No way am I sleeping inside of you…God that sounds so wrong!" Her blush deepened as she spoke. "Goodnight Pace." She finished abruptly as she zipped the tent closed so she could sleep. She heard his laughter fill the area as she drifted off to dreamland.

The next morning Elaina woke up late, with the sun high in the sky. She heard Arrowhead outside playing with Diablo. The Autobot had a habit of trying to play fetch with logs too big for Diablo to pick up, not for lack of trying on Diablo's part.

Elaina changed quickly and threw her hair up in a ponytail to get it out of her face. She climbed outside the tent to the sight of Diablo dragging a log back to Arrowhead. The log was the same length as the dog. Elaina suppressed a giggle at the amusing sight. Diablo dropped the log at Arrowhead's foot and looked up at him expectantly.

Arrowhead picked up the log and threw it again. He then turned to Elaina. "Sleep well?" He asked as she walked over to the fire.

Elaina looked down at the fire in surprise. Arrowhead had actually made her breakfast. There were eggs on a plate near the fire, covered with a wire screen to keep the bugs off, and bacon in a skillet. "Pace, you didn't have to make me food. I didn't even know that you could cook…" She mused as she lifted the screen off the food and added bacon to the plate of eggs. She took a bite and made a sound of pleasure. "This is good, just the right amount of seasoning!" She exclaimed in surprise.

Arrowhead laughed with contentment. "Why thank you," he said proudly. "I downloaded some Food Network videos into my cortex last night as you slept. I wanted to surprise you." He grinned at her sheepishly. The more he was around this human, the more he wanted to stay around her.

Elaine ate in silence enjoying the taste and the company. She continued to watch Arrowhead play with her dog. He seemed to really be enjoying his time here with her and Diablo.

When she was done eating she had Arrowhead help her clean up the campsite and pack everything away. It was mid afternoon before she finally got back into the house and was able to clean up for the day.

Once she was feeling more refreshed she checked her phone messages. OMSI had called again, but she quickly deleted that message. Also she had a message from an unknown phone number. All the message consisted of was a low tone and then a screeching high tone. She deleted that message as well, assuming it was a wrong number or something along that line.

After making dinner she spent the rest of the evening out on the porch, showing Arrowhead all the constellations that could been seen from their location.

* * *

Outside of Portland, in the hills north of Hillsboro, a base was being set up. An old abandoned logging camp was gaining a new life. Starscream shouted orders to Thundercracker and Barricade to start using the leftover buildings to construct a large wall.

"Move faster you pathetic weaklings; we need this wall up now!" He yelled in his high pitched voice.

Thundercracker winced at his younger brother's voice. He hadn't heard him talk in a very long time and he had been glad for the break. Now he was back to having to listen to him talk again.

"Will you shut your annoying processor Starscream? We heard you the first time!" He barked back at his brother. "We're going as fast as we can. Why don't you and Soundwave help out, if you want it done faster?" He suggested pointedly.

Starscream bristled at the comments from his brother. "Why you little insignificant worm! I am your leader now that Megatron is dead and you will obey MY orders!" He yelled. "I have better things to do than help you insects build that wall." He added making himself look busy.

Soundwave shook his head and continued on his task of fixing the broken Frenzy that Barricade had brought to him when they landed. "Must continue repairs." His metallic monotone voice chimed in response to Thundercracker.

Starscream nodded his approval. "Yes, we need all _my_ warriors fully functional to take this new power source and defeat the Autobots."

"Perhaps one of us should go make sure that Megatron is really dead. Maybe he can be repaired as well." Thundercracker suggested lightly as he carried half a metal building over to the wall and welded it on.

He really hoped that Megatron would be able to come back to them. He didn't want to have to listen to his brother giving orders much longer.

Starscream walked over and backhanded his brother, knocking him to the ground. Luckily he didn't hit the wall, causing more work for him and Barricade.

"You fool! I saw what happened to Megatron. There's no way that he survived the Allspark being shoved into his chest by that annoying flesh creature. Even if he did survive, the humans dumped him into the deepest part of the oceans of this planet. The pressure alone would turn him to scrap metal."

Thundercracker stood up slowly, letting Starscream back off a little. He cringed at the stiffness in his hinges from the blow. "You'll pay for that brother…" he whispered under his breath so that Starscream wouldn't hear him.

"What's that brother?" Starscream asked suspiciously as he watched his brother mouth something.

Thundercracker just shook his head. "I just said that it's a shame that the Constructicons are not here." He improvised quickly to distract Starscream.

"Yes, they would be quite useful right now wouldn't they?" Starscream mused as he walked over to check on Soundwaves progress on fixing Frenzy.

While Starscream was distracted Thundercracker sent a message to Shockwave back on Cybertron to check on Megatron's signal. He wanted to know if the signal was still faint or if it had gone out. It had been faint when Starscream had returned commanding him and Soundwave to come back to this planet with him.

Now it was just a matter of waiting for Shockwave to get the message and for him to be able to respond. Time that Thundercracker would just have to carefully wait out, no matter how much his brother's power trip got on his nerves.

Starscream was pleased with the progress that they were making. By nightfall they would have the wall up. Then he would have them begin construction on the base itself while he flew to the museum to pick up the crystals. He could sense them from where he was, and the energy reading was quite strong.

Later he would send Barricade to scout out the other location, the one belonging to the flesh creature that had discovered the rocks. He guessed that the Autobots would be protecting that one, since a flesh creature was directly involved. They would not be watching the museum, at night, when no one what there. At least that's what he assumed.


	3. Chapter 3: The Stolen Crystal

Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformer, they are owned by the very lucky Hasbro

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformer, they are owned by the very lucky Hasbro. I own Elaina and Arrowhead though.. **

**Chapter Three**

It was late on Saturday evening when the alarms at OMSI were set off. A very large metallic fist had just broken the glass wall and grabbed the crystals that were on display in the large front room. With a burst of high pitched laughter Starscream transformed back to his jet form and blasted off into the night, his prize safely stowed away.

* * *

Sunday morning Elaina was up disturbingly early for her. Her clock by the bed glowed a menacing 2 am when the phone rang, waking her up. She clumsily reached for the hand-held that sat on her bedside table after the first few rings. Without dropping it she answered, "What is it?" Her voice was heavy with sleep.

"Sorry to disturb you Miss Johnson, but we wanted to inform you that your crystals were stolen from OMSI about an hour ago." The nice man on the other line spoke with polite urgency.

"What? Stolen?" Elaina managed to blurt out with some semblance of coherency. Her mind was almost fully awake at that moment; her body just needed time to catch up. Still, her thoughts were racing. The Decepticons had indeed made their move, but not against her house, like the Autobots had been expecting.

"I'm afraid so. We'll need to come by in a while to make sure that you are safe, since you have the remainder of the crystals." The nice polite man answered.

"Um… I'm assuming that you are part of some faction of the law. Am I right?" Elaina questioned with skepticism in her voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" The man exclaimed with embarrassment. "I'm Sergeant Davis, of the Portland police force."

Elaina almost laughed at the poor man. Apparently it had either been a long night for him or maybe even a short one so far. "It's all right Officer, I just wanted to make sure. Long night?" She added the last in with a hint of laughter in her voice.

The sergeant laughed heartily over the phone. "No. So far it's been a short one." His voice turned very serious as he added, "Everyone's been called in. This is a strange case so far."

"Oh, why is that?" Elaina asked, hoping to get a hint on whether it was actually the work of the Decepticons or not.

"Um…" The officer sounded hesitant to speak. "I'll have to tell you more when we get there," he finally said after a few moments of silence. Elaina didn't like the sound of that. Whatever had happened wasn't something that the officer wanted to discuss over the phone.

"Can I go back to sleep or should I stay up and wait for you guys to get here?" She asked quickly before he decided that he had to hang up.

"Why don't you go back to sleep. We have to finish here, and that could take some time. Expect us around six or seven in the morning. Till then Miss Johnson." He answered as if he was being called away.

Elaina hung the phone up and sighed. She had to get up to tell Arrowhead what was going on. After that she would attempt to get a couple more hours of much needed sleep. She didn't want to face the cops as the sleep deprived zombie that she could sometimes be.

Once she had donned a robe to cover her tank top and pajama shorts Elaina went out onto the deck from the sliding door in her room. She looked down to where Arrowhead was plugged into the outside outlet. He was currently in his RV form and seemed to be sleeping. She wasn't sure if robots slept or not, but that's what it looked like to her.

"Pace, you awake?" She called down to him. She watched with amusement as her friend almost jumped up in surprise. He made a small jerking motion before he transformed and unplugged himself. "I guess that answers my question…" she mused to herself thinking that it looked very much like she had woken him up.

Arrowhead stood up straight and stretched mightily. His great arms reached high into the sky, and his domed head craned upward as well. With a heavy sigh he let his arms relax then he turned his head towards Elaina.

"What in the name of Primus are you doing awake at this hour?" He asked Elaina with concerned curiosity. His shinning blue optics narrowed as he took in her half awakened state.

Elaina looked directly at Arrowheads optics as she answered, "We have a problem. I believe that one of the Decepticons just stole the crystals from the museum. A police officer called from OMSI letting me know that it was missing."

Arrowhead put a massive hand up to his face. He groaned as he covered his optics in frustration. With a shake of his large head he walked over to the deck.

"What did he tell you?" He asked trying to get more info. It was highly unlikely that anyone else besides the Decepticons would want the crystals, but he hoped that maybe he was wrong this time.

Elaina shrugged. "He wouldn't say much over the phone and I was really too tired to push for more information at the time. He told me that the police would be by to check on me in the morning. Around six or seven. They will probably be able to tell me more then."

Arrowhead had seen a few episodes of CSI when Elaina brought out her portable TV. He understood that these humans seemed to like to investigate every little thing. He didn't think that they'd be able to get any good evidence if the Decepticons were behind this. Still he knew that they would try.

"Why don't you go back to sleep Elaina. I'll make sure that I'm alert in case a Decepticon decides to pay us a little visit." He noticed that she gave him a look as he was talking. "Don't worry, when the police get here I will just be a regular RV, parked and charging. I won't do anything to scare the poor humans."

"Good. Wake me if anything interesting happens before they get here." She said with a sarcastic laugh. She knew that "interesting" meant a Decepticon attack, but she figured if that happened she would already be awake.

She stumbled back inside and actually managed to fall back asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Elaina woke up to Arrowhead knocking lightly on the glass sliding door. She looked at the clock and noticed that it read 5:59 am in bright red. She jumped out of bed, fully awake in an adrenaline rush. She was still in her robe from last night.  
"Why didn't you wake me earlier? The cops could be here any moment." She complained as she flung open the sliding door letting the cool morning air wake her up the rest of the way.

Arrowhead was standing with his chest pressed against the porch railing, his arm stretched as far as it could just so he could knock on her door. He pulled back as she came storming out.

"Good morning to you too," he said lightheartedly. He was glad that she was finally awake. "For your information I have been knocking on your door every few minutes for the past half and hour."

Elaina stopped in her tracks, a sheepish look on her face. "Oh…." She whispered. Her face was crimson when she smiled at Arrowhead. "Sorry 'bout that."

Arrowhead just shrugged at her. He knew that she had been really tired when she had talked to him last night. Luckily the rest of the night had been as quiet and peaceful as normal. Not a Decepticon in sight the whole time. He had contacted Optimus and brought him up to speed about what was going on.

"Go get ready for the cops to be here," Arrowhead suggested lightly with a wave at her appearance. "Also, I called Optimus again and let him know what had happened. He said that he would be here in the evening with the others." Arrowhead added the rest as she was going back inside. She closed the sliding glass door with a grunt that he took as an acknowledgement.

Once she was inside the butterflies started up in her stomach. She was a little nervous about meeting the other Autobots, and scared of the Decepticons. Her simple life was becoming very complicated, very quickly. She almost wished that they had never found the crystals.

Hurriedly she showered and got ready for the day. Her waist length hair was pulled back in an attempt to control the waves. Usually she brushed it out and dried it with the hairdryer so that it lost some of the crazy waves and became more manageable. She was just in a hurry today.

The make-up was simple; blush, eyeliner, and lip-gloss.

Her outfit for the day consisted of khaki shorts that she normally wore out in the field, and a forest green tank top. Because of the morning chill she decided to throw on a matching khaki safari jacket for the time being.

Once downstairs she moved through the living area to the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee. Usually she didn't drink the stuff. She only had the coffee maker and the coffee because she took it to dig sites to make the poor students happy. Today she hoped that the police officers would appreciate the gesture.

For herself she grabbed the Oregon Chai tea out of the fridge and got the milk and ice. The tea came concentrated so all she had to do was add the milk and stir. She liked hers cold, but in the winter she would warm the milk up from time to time.

Food wise she wasn't quite up to cooking at the moment. For some reason she never seemed to be all that hungry in the mornings. She knew that it was important to eat breakfast so she always made herself eat something, but she never liked to cook before noon. This made her lunches a completely different matter. Most of the time her lunch was bigger than her dinner.

This morning her appetite was almost none existent. She figured it had been pushed away by the butterflies that seemed to be having a convention in her stomach. Still she tried to down a whole wheat bagel with some strawberry flavored cream cheese on it.

After picking at the bagel for a while she was about half finished eating it when the doorbell finally rang. She dropped it back on the plate and went to answer the door.

A very tired, but friendly officer was standing on her porch. Behind him were a few more tired looking cops. The one in front smiled a little as she welcomed them in. His badge read "Sergeant Davis", she noticed as he walked past her. The others read "Officer Patricks" and "Officer Harris" She lead them to the kitchen and offered them coffee which everyone gladly accepted.

They introduced themselves and got right down to business. Sergeant Davis explained what they had found. "Never seen anything like it. It's as if a giant hand just reached out of the sky and grabbed the crystals right out of the building." He said with a tired strain to his voice.

Elaina listened with concern. It definitely sounded like the work of the Decepticons. She poured more coffee for the officers before she spoke.

"Did anyone find any evidence, any clue other than the hole in the glass and the crystals just being gone?"

Sergeant Davis shook his head. "Not a pinch of scientific evidence that the crime lab could find. No finger prints or anything like that. It's as if it were done by a machine. The only other thing that anyone could find were blast marks on the pavement outside. Something very hot burned up the area."

Elaina showed them the rest of the crystals that were carefully stored away in her safe. They asked her if anyone else knew that they were there. She told them that a very select few did, which was true. Only a few of her associates in the field knew that she even had the lab at her own home.

"We can take them somewhere safer if you would like." Officer Patricks suggested.

Elaina explained that she felt quite safe with them here. She explained that the people who took the crystals from OMSI probably only knew about those ones because of the huge publicity that the museum was throwing around for them.

They went on to ask her about the value of the crystals and she really couldn't think of how to answer that one. After pondering it over for a moment, she answered, "I don't really know. It depends on who you talk to. Street value is a little more than any other type of crystal formation. Maybe a few hundred dollars or something like that. Really it's more valuable to someone that might have an interest in studying the properties of the rocks. They aren't like normal crystals in some ways. For example they put off a little heat. Most crystals are cold." She went into teaching mode as she talked.

"Also, they have colors inside of them that seem to move," she described to them a little weakly. To demonstrate she pulled out a small piece from the safe and held it up to the light. The colors did appear to move as they all looked at it.

"Wow. I've never seen anything like it." Office Harris commented as he held up the piece that she had handed to him.

With a small sigh she took the piece back and stared at it. "We haven't had enough time to thoroughly study them yet. They could be more valuable than I think, but that's because I think like a scientist and not a rock collector. I guess a newly discovered crystal may be valuable on the market if you get the right buyer. I honestly don't know…" She trailed off as she tried to play along with the money idea.

She figured it was best not to mention her suspicions. She didn't want to be locked in the loony bin for saying that she thought it was evil robots stealing her discovery so that they could use them for a power source.

"Can we take that piece there so that we have a better idea of what to look for?" Sergeant Davis asked with the full knowledge that he was asking for a valuable piece of her research.

Reluctantly she handed the small piece over to the man. He looked at it in the light again for a moment before wrapping in a handkerchief and putting in his pocket.

"Thank you Miss Johnson. This may help us solve this case." He said it with hope in his voice. They all walked back with Elaina to the door. She opened it for them and looked out at her driveway. There were three squad cars parked. One had another cop just sitting in them.

"I feel sorry for him. You guys made him wait this whole time…" she laughed a little as she gestured at the other cops.

Sergeant Davis laughed a little too. "Happens all the time in this job, I hate to say it." The other offices agreed with him heartily.

"If you think of anything else…" Davis handed Elaina his card, "just make sure to give me a call." Then he strolled to his car, an unmarked Chevy Impala.

Officer Patricks and Officer Harris both said goodbye and thanked her for the coffee. They got into one of the marked cars together and followed Davis's Impala.

* * *

Arrowhead watched the police cars with concern. One of them just didn't seem right. He kept his optics on the Charger the whole time that Elaina had been talking to the cops. He had also managed to increase his sensors so that he could hear what they were talking about while inside the house.

Once the cops came back out with Elaina he relaxed a little. The cops got in their cars and started to drive away. The third car, which was the marked Dodge Charger, backed up to get out of their way. He smashed soundly into Arrowhead's side in his RV form.

What Elaina didn't see was the back bumper of the Charger detach and hit Arrowhead even harder than the car itself did, before settling back to normal.

Arrowhead knew at that moment that it was not a cop car. It was Barricade. He almost transformed to attack, but the other cops were still in sight. Without doing any more damage Barricade went off to follow the other cops.

Elaina ran up to Arrowhead after the cops left. "Did that idiot dent you?" She asked in concern as she looked him over.

"It takes more than a Decepticon scout to hurt me." He said as he transformed to stretch out the kinks.

"Decepticon!?" Elaina asked him in a scared shock. She couldn't believe that she had been that close to a Decepticon without realizing it. She thought that they would be obvious or something. Maybe a definite aura of evil surrounding them to give them away. She hadn't realized that they would be as well disguised as an Autobot.

Arrowhead finished stretching and sat down next to her. He was upset that he hadn't discovered sooner that Barricade had been there the whole time. The Decepti-creep had just been sitting there, right in front of his nose for about an hour. He had probably been listening in on the conversation as well.

If that was the case than Elaina had done a very good job by explaining her confusion about why anyone would want to steal the crystals. The Decepticons wouldn't know that she knew about them from that conversation.

"Yes a Decepticon. That was Barricade." Arrowhead was a bit grumpy and it showed in his tone when he talked. He was kicking himself internally for not scanning the cop cars when they were here. He had been so focused on listening in on the conversation.

"Also, I think it was either Starscream or Thundercracker that stole the crystals." He added after replaying the entire conversation in his head. "When the cop mentioned scorch marks I figured it out."

Elaina raised an eyebrow at his deduction. She didn't know who either of those Decepticons were so the names really didn't mean much to her.

"When they transform they are jets, like the ones that your Air Force pilots fly in. The take off would have caused the burns on the pavement." He explained.

With Megatron gone he figured that Starscream had probably taken over the Decepticons again. It made the Autobots job easier, because Starscream's plans had a habit of falling apart.

"Since the Decepticons know where you are now you should probably stay inside until the others get here. I'll keep a more diligent watch from now on." Arrowhead said with a hint of shame in his voice.

"You did your best. You couldn't have known that Barricade would come here." Elaina tried to comfort her friend. She patted his giant knee and smiled up at him warmly.

"No Elaina, I messed up. I should have scanned the cars." He said in a defeated tone. He stood up and walked a little ways off with his thoughts spinning. After a few minutes of silence he turned back to her with determination. "I won't mess up again though. You go inside. It'll be safer for you." He insisted.

He watched her shrug and walk inside with Diablo following her. She patted the dog mindlessly as she went inside and shut the door behind her. Arrowhead turned back to the forest around him and started patrolling the area.

* * *

Back at the Decepticon base Starscream waited for the others to return. He had sent Barricade out to scout on the human's house. Thundercracker and Soundwave had left last night to try and find some remnants of Blackout and Devastator to bring back for extra parts to keep on hand. They were also sent out to scout for anything that might be useful in arming the new base.

Absently he played with the crystal formation in his hand. It reflected the light nicely as he moved his hand from side to side. He could feel the energy pulsing within the rocks were they touched him.

"What amazing energy." He crooned to the rocks as he rolled them around. He let the waves of energy wash over him with each movement.

As he was playing with the rocks he heard his brother returning with Soundwave. They had a very large bundle strung between them as they flew. His brother was in his blue jet form which he had copied when they had landed on this planet.

It was a blue military jet that had gold trim with writing on the sides. The writing had been some nonsense about "blue angels", but Thundercracker had changed it to "demons". Soundwave was in his normal form because his other form was that of a huge CD player.

They descended towards the roof opening of the building that they had constructed as a store house and hanger bay. Starscream was standing in front of the building as they lowered the covered cargo inside of it.

"I hope you two found something of use in the bundle of scrap you have there." Starscream placated the two as they were unloading. He sneered at his brother as Thundercracker transformed from his jet mode.

Thundercracker smiled at his brother with a hint of slyness in it. "We found some useful things out there." His deep gravelly voice had a hint of satisfaction to it.

"Good," Starscream squawked, "Then get to work on building me some _useful_ weapons for this base. I don't want any pesky Autobots coming to take away my prize." He held up the crystals so all could see.

Thundercracker stared at the crystals for a moment. He could sense the waves of energy pouring off of them.

"I think I can make something that will put the crystal energy where it's needed most." He grinned and said the thought as it came to him.

"Oh?" Starscream asked with interest.

Thundercracker nodded. "Yes. Something great! Something that will make that crystal even more useful." His red optics gleamed with anticipation.

Starscream smiled greedily. "Then get to it!" He barked the order to his brother with impatience.

Thundercracker gave him a mock bow and moved inside the store house with Soundwave.

"Worked like a charm," He said quietly to his partner after he closed the roof door and locked it up. He pulled the large cloth off of their bundle to reveal the broken form of Megatron.

Standing proudly before his leader's broken body he proclaimed, "With the crystals I believe that we can get him fully functional again in a matter of hours."

He patted Soundwave on the shoulder. "Now help me fix his arm and leg."


	4. Chapter 4: The Autobots Arrive

Disclaimer: As always… I don't own the Transformers, they belong to Hasbro

**Disclaimer: As always… I don't own the Transformers, they belong to Hasbro. I do own Elaina and Arrowhead. **

**Chapter Four**

Elaina spent most of the day down in her lab. She didn't really know what else to do with her time. So she decided to further her study of the crystals. She ran them through every possible test that she could think of and came up with nothing. Her equipment couldn't find anything unusual about them other than the slight heat signature.

The most interesting thing that Elaina discovered about them is they way they felt when she held them. When the crystal was sitting in her open palm she could actually feel the energy waves coming off of it. This intensified if she closed her fist over it. This was very strange to her because of the lack of scientific data to back up the sensation.

There was one time she was gripping the crystal very tightly and she could feel an echo of the energy wave pounding in her chest.

"That's odd," she had said to herself and noted the feelings down in her laptop. Diablo was in his spot under the small TV that she kept in her lab trying his best to keep her company without being in the way.

* * *

Finally she felt the need to get out of the basement and figured that she should probably try to eat something for an early dinner. She had skipped lunch without realizing it. Of course she was still dealing with the butterfly convention in her stomach, so missing lunch hadn't been too horrible for her.

"I don't know what's worse, the nervousness about meeting the rest of the Autobots, or the fear of the Decepticons?" She vented to Diablo as she went into the kitchen. He wagged his tail in response.

"You're right. I really shouldn't be nervous." She admitted to herself as she opened the fridge.

After rummaging around for a few minutes she went to the counter with some leftover chicken and rice. She spooned some into a dish and microwaved it for a few minutes.

She sat down to eat her leftovers and watched the sun start to set in the sky. Arrowhead walked past on his patrol and she realized that she had really missed chatting with him about random things today. To distract herself she turned on the TV and watched a little bit of a movie that just happened to be on.

* * *

Later when she took her dish to the sink she noticed some lights coming up the driveway. Then Arrowhead's face took up the entire window in front of her. She opened it so that he could speak.

"They're here," was all he said before he straightened up and walked towards the oncoming lights.

Elaina rushed outside to see a blue semi with red flames drive up, followed by a big black GMC truck, a yellow ambulance, and a shiny new yellow Camero with black racing stripes.

In an astonishing move all the vehicles transformed around her. The yellow Camero became a very bouncy robot that seemed young. The ambulance became a very distinguished looking robot. The truck became a very rough looking robot that had a military feel to him.

Lastly the semi transformed into a very large robot with a commanding presence. He had a face plate over his nose and mouth. Arrowhead came up to the semi robot and shook hands with him in a very respectful greeting.

"Elaina. Let me introduce you to Optimus Prime." Arrowhead motioned towards the robot that he had just greeted. "Optimus this is Elaina Johnson." He finished as he lightly pushed the astonished Elaina towards his leader.

Optimus knelt down so that he could get closer to the small human woman. He looked her over quickly. She stuck out her hand for a greeting. Optimus smiled and took it gently in his.

Elaina let Optimus take her hand. The moment that his hand touched hers she felt that pulse again in her chest. It was like holding the crystals tightly, only a lot stronger. She had never felt anything like that before.

Optimus felt it too and it surprised him greatly. It took him a moment to let the feeling settle before he spoke.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Elaina Lynn Johnson." He spoke as he lightly gripped her hand without hurting it. The feeling continued in his spark until he let go. He shook the rest of it away, as if clearing his head. He wanted to know what had caused it, but he more important things to deal with for the time being.

"Please just call me Elaina…" She spoke when he let go of her hand. The pulsing stopped when they were no longer touching.

Optimus nodded his acknowledgement. "Of course." Then he turned to each of his friends in turn. "This is Ratchet, our medical officer, Ironhide, my weapons specialist, and Bumblebee."

Elaina turned from one to the other as Optimus introduced them. She was impressed by both Ratchet and Ironhide. Maybe a bit scared of Ironhide at the same time. Then she turned to Bumblebee. "What do you do?" She asked as she looked him over.

"I kick ass and take names." Bumblebee said taking on a tough guy pose which really didn't suit him.

"Bumblebee…" Prime said in a disappointed tone. "Watch your language in front of a lady."

Arrowhead burst out laughing at that reprimand. He had never really heard Bumblebee talk like that. He figured that he was spending too much time with that teenage human boy that he had originally been sent to guard.

Still Arrowhead knew that Elaina had said worse than that when she was upset. He also knew that she really didn't consider herself much of a "lady" at all.

"What's so amusing Arrowhead?" Optimus asked with curiosity. He watched his friend try to stop laughing and saw the amused smile on Elaina's face, though she was attempting to look upset.

"It's nothing really Optimus. I think Bumblebee's been spending too much time with his human companion." Arrowhead answered once he was done laughing. His face was calm and under control, with a hint of a smile peaking out.

"Perhaps. Then this will be a good break for him." Optimus said lightly as he looked over at Bumblebee. At the moment the younger robot was letting the dog lick his fingers and laughing.

Elaina kept being surprised by these robots. Diablo hated most humans, except her, but he seemed to love the Autobots. She really couldn't explain his behavior.

She turned back to Optimus and looked him over. She could see why Arrowhead had a bit of a hero worship for him. He was very awe inspiring. As she looked at him her eyes met with his optics. She enjoyed the way his shined with a fiery light. If he had been human she could have explained the feelings she was getting as attraction. Since he was a robot she really didn't know what to call them.

_Or maybe I'm just attracted to robots_. She thought to herself as she looked him over. She really enjoyed the way his voice sounded when he talked. His voice was pleasantly deep and distinctive. Being attracted to him wouldn't be the first strange thing that had happened in her life. Her face was crimson with the idea.

Ratchet picked up her pheromones and cleared his throat. He didn't know what to make of it. Humans seemed to be a mystery to him still.

Elaina and Optimus turned away from each other and looked at Ratchet. Optimus was glad for the face guard. He was smiling from the look on the girls face.

"Maybe we should settle in for the night." Ratchet suggested as he looked away from his leader and the human. He surveyed the surrounding area.

"Alright, Autobots start patrolling the area for Decepticons." Optimus ordered.

Arrowhead watched Elaina looking at Optimus and sighed internally. He didn't know why he was upset about it, he just was. It wasn't a feeling he had ever had to deal with before.

Bumblebee walked over to Arrowhead and patted him on the shoulder. "Why don't you show me around?" He said to his friend. Arrowhead walked off with him.

Ironhide started walking around the house, making sure to go the opposite direction than the other two. Ratchet walked down to where the grass met the trees and started looking through the forest.

Optimus turned back to Elaina. He looked down at her with confusion. He wasn't sure why his spark had reacted to her, and he wanted to find out. He knew that he had to keep focused on the crystals as well as the Decepticon threat. He could figure the rest out later, but it did bother him a little.

"Would it be possible to see the crystals that you have?" He asked.

Elaina frowned a little at that. She was tired and didn't want to deal with much more at the moment. Her thoughts were confused enough as it was. With a sigh she answered him, "Can we do it later? I've had a really long day and I would like to try to get a bit of sleep."

Optimus noticed the hesitation in her voice. He realized that she was handling this well for a human. It was lot to deal with. He figured that it wouldn't hurt to give her a little bit of time, and some breathing room. He had learned his lesson about being too rushed with humans. Things seemed to go badly if you pushed them too much.

"It's alright." He said after thinking it over.

Elaina smiled in genuine appreciation. She was feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything and wanted the chance to let it all sink in. She was hoping that she would be able to sleep tonight, knowing that all these Autobots were here. At least she didn't have to be afraid of the Decepticons for the time being. She had her own small army milling around her house.

"Thank you Optimus Prime," she spoke lightly as she started to head for the house. She stopped a moment and turned back to the robot. "Can you guys try to keep it down for the night? I really need to get some rest."

Optimus smiled at her warmly, not that she could see it with his face guard up. "I think that can be arranged." He laughed a little as he spoke. "Go get some rest. You'll be safe while we are here."

Optimus turned from her for a moment and spoke loudly to the others, "Autobots, use stealth tonight. Elaina needs us to be quiet."

Elaina heard a moan of complaint from Ironhide, but the rest seemed to just accept what she wanted.


	5. Chapter 5: The Crystal's Light

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformers. Hasbro owns them. I own Elaina and Arrowhead. **

**Chapter Five**

She had gone inside to sleep, but three hours later she was still wide awake. Her head was filled with different thoughts that she couldn't seem to turn off for the night. By the time that the clock read one in the morning she got fed up with it and decided to go sit on the porch to clear her head.

She threw her robe over her sleep clothes and headed out onto her deck. The night was warm for Oregon and the stars were shinning brightly. A noise caught her attention. Optimus Prime was sitting on the hill next to the deck. His head was just visible above the railing.

"I hope we didn't wake you," Optimus commented to her as she sat on the edge of the railing.

Elaina appreciated the concern in his voice. She laughed a little before answering. "No you didn't wake me. I haven't been able to sleep all night. Too much going on in here…" she answered with a tap to her forehead.

Optimus nodded his understanding. He had been lost in deep thought as well, before she had come outside.

His mind had been running over the main possibility of why his spark had reacted to her. It was something that he wanted to try to figure out. He knew he just had to spend some time with Elaina to be able to work out the reason. His mind had also wandered back to the golden years on Cybertron. He longed for that sense of peacefulness again.

Elaina looked up at the stars with a noise of contentment. She loved nights like this, with the stars blazing, and a warm breeze on her skin.

"Arrowhead told me about your home, Cybertron. Where is it from here?" She asked Optimus after a few minutes of silence passed.

Optimus looked up to the skies above and waved a hand up. "It's out there somewhere. A lot further away than anything you can see here." His tone was sad and more than a bit wistful.

Elaina looked back to him with sympathy. She understood the loss that he was most likely feeling at that moment.

"I know what it's like to lose something you love," she commented softly as he turned to face her. "My parents died in a car accident a couple years ago… I still cry about it sometimes," she admitted with fresh tears threatening at the edge of her green eyes.

Optimus gently touched the side of her face with the tip of his finger. He was touched by her sharing this pain with him. It was a pleasant surprise to have her trust him with that little personal insight. Elaina leaned into his touch, feeling a mild warmth in her chest.

"I lost a loved one back on Cybertron. When the war started, all our lives changed… I never got to say goodbye to her…" Optimus said as he looked back to the endless stars.

Elaina grabbed his finger as he started to pull it away. She attempted to hold his whole hand, but found it was bigger than her own, so she held the fingertip. Optimus let her take the comfort of that companionable touch. Again he felt the small warmth growing in his spark.

They sat there for a least an hour. Elaina excused herself after that. She was finally feeling a little sleepy. She went back inside and crawled under the covers. She drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

The next morning Elaina didn't stir until around 11am. She felt groggy still, but she was determined to be a good hostess. She dragged herself into the shower to get her day going.

Once cleaned she looked over her closet carefully. She didn't usually care what she wore, but today she wanted to look nice. She really couldn't justify it, but she wanted it none the less. She picked out a nice green silk tank top that she almost never wore. It was too nice for her daily life and showed off her figure perfectly. She also grabbed her nice jeans, the ones that had no holes in them. They fit a little tight, but she didn't notice today.

She decided to put on a little make-up as well. Her hair was left to dry in its usual mass of waves. The sound of the doorbell shocked her out of double-checking her make-up.

She ran to the door in a mild panic. What would her unknown guest say about the Autobots? Were they able to hide themselves? Who in the world would be here in the first place? She hoped it wasn't the police. She didn't really want to deal with them again.

Once she reached the front door she took a second to catch her breath before opening it. She was relieved to see it was only a UPS delivery man. He handed her a small package and had her sign the form.

"You got quite the collection of vehicles out there lady," The man commented as he started back to his truck. Elaina groaned and stepped outside to see all the Autobots in vehicle form in her driveway.

"Yeah… I let my family keep their stuff here sometimes…." She lied as she waved goodbye to the UPS man. He shrugged and then drove away. Once he was out of sight the Autobots transformed back to their robot forms.

"Well that could have been bad," Elaina fumed at no one in particular. "What were you guys thinking?! No one has this many cars, as well as a SEMI TRUCK and AN AMBULANCE in their driveway!!" She yelled at the Autobots.

"We really didn't know where else to go," Bumblebee commented as he started playing fetch with Diablo.

Optimus had a sheepish look on his face as he shrugged and apologized. "Sorry about that." He walked over to Elaina and knelt down to face her. "What did the delivery man bring you? It has a slight energy signature."

Elaina looked at the box in her hand carefully. The return address was from a friend of hers that lived in Montana.

"Oh… I almost forgot!" She exclaimed as she started opening the package. She pulled out a small object wrapped in tissue paper. She let the tissue paper fall to the ground as she held up a perfectly formed piece of the crystal that had been made into a necklace for her.

"My friend offered to make this for me when we discovered the crystals on that dig." She explained as she slipped the necklace on over her head.

Optimus looked closely at the small crystal fragment. It looked very different from anything he had ever seen documented on this planet. He was almost sure it was not originally from Earth.

"Have you had time to think about things Elaina?" Optimus asked as he gestured to the crystal necklace at her chest. As he did, he couldn't help but notice that she looked very nice today.

Elaina looked at him blankly for a moment. Then she remembered that she had promised to think about letting them see the crystals today. "Sure. I can go get the crystals after I have some breakfast. Is that alright with you guys?"

"Elaina… It's almost lunch time," Arrowhead pointed out.

She turned a nice shade of crimson as Arrowhead pointed out the time. "I know that. I had a late night!" She said defensively as she sneaked a glace at Optimus.

He noticed her glance and winked at her. Apparently he hadn't informed the other Autobots about their talk last night. That was quite alright with Elaina, since it had been a very personal moment.

* * *

Arrowhead saw the quick look that passed between Elaina and Optimus. He felt anger build in his spark at the intimate moment. He had the sudden desire to yell at his leader, and ask him how dare he get a look from her like that. Optimus had only known her for these few hours. Arrowhead had been with her for days!

He noticed his hands clench into fists and decided that he needed to cool off or he would end up doing something he would regret. Without another word to Elaina he walked over to where Bumblebee was playing with the dog.

* * *

"Go ahead and eat something Elaina. I think we can wait a little longer," Optimus commented after Arrowhead walked away. He wanted to take a few minutes to contact the others that were back at the base.

Once Elaina was inside he motioned for the others to get back to patrolling. Then he turned on his communicator. "Prowl, Wheeljack, Cliffjumper, come in."

The response was instantaneous. "Prowl here. What's going on Optimus?" The slightly refined deep voice answered him.

"Just checking in. How's everything back at base?" Optimus asked.

Prowl took a moment before answering. "Everything's mostly all right. Wheeljack brought some of his experiments with him. Let's just say we are in the middle of cleaning up the mess from one of them." Prowl had a very exasperated tone to his voice when he mentioned Wheeljack.

"Any sign of Decepticon activity on the sensors?" Optimus asked, ignoring the urge to have a talk with Wheeljack at that moment.

"Possibly. Another unexplained meteor passed your way early this morning. I'm surprised you didn't notice it." Prowl said with mild concern.

Optimus frowned as he thought back over the whole night. He hadn't noticed anything like that at all. "Are you sure it was near here?"

"Positive. It may have been able to cloak itself though, but I hope not. That would be bad news if the Decepticons figured out how to do that." Prowl didn't like that idea one bit, but it was the only reasoning that he could come up with.

"Alright. We'll check into it. Let me know if you find any more unexplained meteors. Optimus Prime out." Optimus finished the communication with a deep sigh. He really hoped that it was just a meteor and not another Decepticon.

* * *

Skywarp landed right outside the base. Thundercracker had contacted him during the night, asking for some parts from Cybertron. So here he was on this fleshling infested planet with a crate full of parts, knocking on the gate to the base. His expression when Starscream finally opened the door was one of extreme boredom.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Starscream asked in annoyance. He hadn't been expecting any more soldiers from Cybertron. He especially didn't want his other brother here.

"Nice to see you too brother!" Skywarp said as he pushed past Starscream and lugged the crate into the base. He looked around in disappointment. "Well this isn't exactly what I would call homey." The base was in the middle of a forest and was surrounded by a cobbled together steel wall. The three large buildings inside were equally patch-worked, and looked like they would leak in the rain.

"I hope you don't intend on having us live here Starscream. It's worse than the scrap heap alleys back on Cybertron, and it smells worse too! What is that smell anyways?" Skywarp asked as he looked around with his face scrunched up.

"Trees," was Starscream's flat reply. His anger at being treated inferior was plain on his face.

"Never mind that though… WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??" Starscream finally lost his temper and yelled in his brother's face.

Thundercracker stepped out the storehouse and closed the door quickly behind him. "I asked him to bring some parts from Cybertron so that I could build your new _weapon_. The weapon that will use the power of the crystals." He said emphasizing the weapon part so that Starscream would back off of Skywarp. He knew he had to keep playing that angle until they were done with the repairs.

"Oh… Very well. You should have let me know first, but I will overlook the oversight this time," Starscream said dismissively then he added, "Just don't let it happen ever again!"

Thundercracker nodded, and took the crate from Skywarp without another word. He then locked himself back in the store house with Soundwave.

Skywarp watched his older brother go without a word of thanks to him and sighed. "See what I get for being nice…" He mumbled as he sat down on a giant tree stump.

"So what is there to do for fun around here Starscream?" He asked his younger brother with feigned amusement.

Starscream rolled his eyes at Skywarp and walked over to one of the other buildings. "Try to make yourself useful Skywarp."

"Whatever," came Skywarp's bored reply.

* * *

Elaina had a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice for brunch. She didn't want to cook, since that would have taken her longer.

She was ready to show them the crystals, now that she had a better sense of these robots. It really helped her last night, to see that the Autobots were just like people.

She had already figured that out with Arrowhead, but she couldn't have known that the other would be the same until she got to know them a little.

The talk with Optimus had really done a lot for building her trust in the Autobots. It had also caused her to feel something she hadn't let herself feel in years. Ever since her parents had died she had kept to herself. She didn't let anyone in. She hadn't even dated anyone since she had broken up with her fiancé at the funeral.

Now she was starting to notice the signs that she was attracted to someone again. So what if that someone was a 30ft tall robot? So what if she just met the guy? She knew the signs and they were all there!

After throwing the empty cereal bowl in the sink, she went downstairs and got the crystal formation out of her safe. She carefully carried it out to the front yard.

Once she was outside she caught Optimus's attention. He called the other Autobots over and they surrounded her. Optimus knelt right in front of her so that he could see the crystal.

"This is the crystal formation that I found." She said as she held it up. In the sunlight the colors swirled in a frantic dance inside of the many faucets of the rocks. The crystal was almost painfully warm in her hands.

Optimus leaned in even closer to get a better look at the crystals. As he did so the crystals started to glow ever so slightly. An echoing glow came from the crystal around Elaina's neck. Tentatively Optimus reached out with a finger to touch the crystals. The moment his cool metal touched the warm crystal it erupted into a blinding light and shattered. Then the entire world went dark for the Autobots and Elaina.

* * *

At the same time, Thundercracker had finished the repairs. Soundwave had gone to ask Starscream for the crystal. When he returned with it he handed it to Thundercracker, then locked the door behind him. Thundercracker moved to place the crystal in Megatron's spark chamber.

"Here goes nothing…" He whispered hopefully as he settled the crystal in. In a blinding flash of light he saw Megatron move, and then everything was black.


End file.
